A Breath of Fresh Air Feb 6

This week our special guest is the wonderful Roger Cook.

Roger Cook is a prolific British songwriter who has had over 80 top 30 hits. He first came to prominence during the British Invasion, usually working in tandem with singer songwriter Roger Greenaway. He is best known for his song I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, which was recorded by the New Seekers and became the theme song for a long running series of Coca Cola commercials.

Roger had a life-changing experience at18 when witnessed a guitarist write a song for the girl singer in his group and he became inspired to write his own. He joined Roger Greenaway’s group in 1963, and the two wrote their first song together, You Got Your Troubles, I Got Mine, which became a worldwide hit. After that he scored success after success, joining the group Blue Mink in 1970 and causing a sensation with the controversial lyrics in the song Melting Pot.

When he became a bit blasé about his success,  he moved to America and settled in Nashville in order to challenge himself to try to write songs for the country music market. All of his hits had been pop tunes until that time but after a couple of years of figuring out the difference, he managed his first number one with Crystal Gayle, a song called Talking in Your Sleep. Many more followed as he started writing with John Prine and others.

Roger walks us through each of his hits and the various chapters in his life. He’s a fascinating and incredibly talented artist who shares some down to earth advice for budding song writers.